Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 83rd ILC session (1996)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Niger (Ratification: 1962)

With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report.

1. The Committee notes the Government's general indication that the Ministry for Social Development, Population and the Advancement of Women and the various associations for the advancement of women are continuing to conduct activities designed to eradicate all discrimination in regard to women's access to employment in the public and private sectors. It requests once again the Government to provide more detailed particulars on the nature of these activities and their impact on the promotion of equality of opportunity and treatment for women and the elimination of all discrimination based in particular on sex. It would like to have extracts from these bodies' activity reports and other documents connected with the application of the Convention in this respect.

2. The Committee notes from the report that one of the difficulties in implementing the policy of promoting equality of opportunity and treatment for women lies in their lack of qualifications and that, to facilitate their access to employment, the Government has set objectives, specifically increasing women's training and augmenting the school attendance rate for girls. The Committee repeats its request for detailed information on the positive measures taken by the Government to achieve these objectives and on the results obtained. It requests the Government to provide with its next report statistics allowing it to appreciate the progress in the distribution by sex of students in schools and vocational training centres and other teaching and training programmes, as promised in a previous report.

3. Concerning the participation of women in public and private employment, the Committee notes that according to the statistics supplied on the number of officials in the public sector at 31 August 1994, the proportion of women employed in the sector is 23 per cent in general, and 12, 13 and 0 per cent, respectively, in categories A1, D2 and E1. In order to understand and appreciate the value of these data, the Committee would like to have the text of the legislation or regulation defining the functions and responsibilities corresponding to each of these categories, in particular the categories where there is still a very large difference between the percentage of women and men. It also requests the Government once again to supply detailed information on the specific provisions taken or envisaged to facilitate and promote the access of women to employment in the public and private sectors, especially in those categories of the public sector mentioned above in which they are represented little or not at all.